Sixteen units at the Ardenaire Apartments are back in operation six months after a shooting and carjacking suspect set fire to the complex.

Mercy Housing California had to completely rehab two apartments and repaired water and smoke damage at 14 others after Jimmy Lee Graves started the fire April 20. Graves, who was not a resident of the 53-unit complex, barricaded himself in an apartment and started the fire before sheriff’s deputies shot and killed him.

Renovations cost $700,000, and Mercy Housing officials are celebrating the completion of the work in a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. today at the complex on Ethan Way.

Mercy Housing California acquired the apartment complex and renovated it during 2006 to 2009, creating 53 refurbished affordable apartment units -- 19 of which were allocated to formerly homeless families.

The complex was evacuated after Graves’ 14-hour, two-county crime spree culminated on a second-floor balcony, and the first residents were allowed to return within days, but others stayed with family, friends or at local motels until the repairs were made.